Judge rejects Hunter Biden’s bid to delay his June trial on federal gun charges

By James On May 15, 2024

WILMINGTON, Del.– Hunter Biden’s federal gun case will go to trial next month, a judge said Tuesday, denying a bid by lawyers for the president’s son to delay the prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected Hunter Biden’s request to delay the Delaware trial until September, which the defense said was necessary to line up witnesses and review evidence presented by prosecutors. The judge said she believes “everyone can get done what needs to be done” by the trial’s June 3 start date.

Later Tuesday, a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court said the tax case against him — set to go to trial in California on June 20 — could also move forward. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a defense attempt to dismiss the case.

The two rulings mean Joe Biden’s son could go to trial next month in two criminal cases on opposite sides of the coast, in the middle of his father’s re-election campaign.

In Delaware, Hunter Biden is accused of lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to purchase a gun that he kept for about 11 days. He has pleaded not guilty and acknowledged that he was struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he did not break the law.

Special Counsel David Weiss’ team plans to show jurors the gun case portions of his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” detailing his struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse following the 2015 death of his older brother Beau, who succumbed from brain cancer at age 46, according to court documents filed Tuesday. Hunter Biden says he has been sober since 2019.

During a hearing in Delaware federal court, Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge that many experts the defense has approached have been reluctant to testify in the case, citing the media attention. Prosecutor Derek Hines pushed back on the suggestion that media attention was the cause.

“It says in his memoir that he had an active addiction,” Hines said. “I don’t know what expert they can find who will say he wasn’t. I think that’s the problem they’re having.”

Lowell said he was not trying to find an expert who could refute Biden’s addiction problem, but to discuss the ability to recognize someone when he or she is addicted. Hunter Biden was not required to attend Tuesday’s hearing and did not do so.

The defense has argued that prosecutors caved to pressure from Republicans, who alleged the Democratic president’s son was initially given a “sweetheart deal” and that he was charged because of political pressure.

But Noreika, who was nominated to the court by former President Donald Trump, last month rejected his claim that the prosecution is politically motivated, along with other efforts to dismiss the case. A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said last week that the case could go to trial, although Hunter Biden’s attorney said Tuesday that they would continue to push his appeal.

Later Tuesday, his lawyers filed another attempt to derail the prosecution, again claiming that the special counsel’s funding had not been appropriately authorized by Congress. The judge rejected a request for dismissal on these grounds last month.

In California, he is charged with three felonies and six misdemeanors, relating to at least $1.4 million in taxes he owed between 2016 and 2019. Prosecutors have accused him of spending millions of dollars on an “extravagant lifestyle” instead of paying his taxes. The overdue taxes have now been paid.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys appealed to the 9th Circuit after U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi denied eight motions to dismiss the charges last month. The appeals court’s three-judge panel did not rule on the merits of his claims on Tuesday, but said the issues cannot be appealed at this time.

He would have pleaded guilty to tax charges last year and would have avoided prosecution on gun charges if he had stayed out of trouble for two years. It was the culmination of a yearslong investigation by federal prosecutors into the president’s son’s business dealings, and the deal would have ended criminal charges and spared the Bidens weeks of headlines as the 2024 election loomed.

But the deal collapsed after the judge, who was supposed to sign the agreement, instead asked a series of questions about it.

He is charged in the Delaware case with making false statements, first for checking a box falsely saying he was not addicted to drugs, and second for giving it to the store for the federal government required data. A third charge alleges he had the gun in his possession for about 11 days, despite knowing he was a drug user.

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Richer reported from Washington.